Natural Sciences (Biological) @ Christ's, Cambridge in 2016

Interview format

2x interview (30 minutes each)

Interview content

Specific biology and chemistry subject-specific questions

Best preparation

Interview questions website

Final thoughts

Relax and try to enjoy.

Remember this advice isn't official. There is no guarantee it will reflect your experience because university applications can change between years. Check the official Cambridge and Oxford websites for more accurate information on this year's application format and the required tests.

Also, someone else's experience may not reflect your own. Most interviews are more like conversations than tests and like, any conversation, they are quite interactive.

Interview Format

My interview was in early December. I went to the JCR following signs around the college and waited there until a student took me to my first interview room. There was around half an hour of fellows taking turns in asking me different biology questions using diagrams or models sometimes mainly focused around how I'd run experiments.

After an hour break or so, I went to my second interview. There were two fellows and it lasted around 30 mins. The first one showed me part of an animal skeleton and centred his questions around that. The other interviewer gave chemistry-based questions.

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

We discussed entropy and enthalpy for the chem questions. For the biology questions, we discussed virsues, tranciption, some functions of nasal cavities, how I'd construct an experiment to test stuff given the conditions they gave. I didn't remember everything and if I got a bit stuck it was okay to ask the interviewers questions.

How did you prepare?

The Oxbrige Applications website gave some example interview questions and answers for some that I could use to practice.

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

Being relaxed really makes the interview easier and more enjoyable. You can enjoy the challenge and experience rather than worry about your future.